Saturday, August 27, 2011

As Hurricane Irene comes past, keep in mind that for breweries the danger is not only from the storm, winds, and flooding. If power is lost, refrigeration is lost. If refrigeration is lost, beer is lost. That's a financial hit that can cripple a smaller brewery, and endanger livelihoods.

Here's how the Dogfish Head Brewery 'Tweeted' their situation earlier today. Sitting near the coast of Delaware, the brewery and its brewpub could be in the bulls-eye path of the storm.

We hope for the best for Dogfish Head and for all of our brewery friends along the mid-Atlantic coast, New York, and New England. We wish safety for everyone in Irene's path. Today, don't forget your bottled 'water.' Tomorrow, we'll all appreciate a good beer.

Iki pasimatymo!

***************If you live in the greater Washington D.C. area, here's a list of local emergency contact numbers, from The Breaking News Blog of the Washington Post.

Montgomery County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 311.

Prince George’s County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 301-499-8520.

Fairfax County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-324-1770.

Arlington: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-228-6525.

Prince William County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-792-7070.

TRAFFIC CONDITIONS
Drivers in Maryland and Virginia can call 511 to get the latest on traffic conditions.

RED CROSS
To find out about emergency services in your town, call the organization at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

EMERGENCY SHELTER
The Red Cross is setting up dozens of shelters across the East Coast. Shelters can be located on a map the organization maintains on is Web site. The Red Cross can also be contacted at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

... and Bill Jusino, steward for the competition, conferred with the judges about the scoring of the beers. The competition was organized by the DC Homebrewers Club, and held at the Red Palace, in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, 20 August 2011.

Friday, August 26, 2011

The "Little City" of Falls Church, Virginia, is poised to become a bona fide good beer destination.

Lary Hoffman, owner of Galaxy Hut—the nearly 20-year-old good beer bar in Arlington, Virginia, which he purchased only a few years ago— has formally filed papers with the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to serve beer and wine in a second location, in Falls Church, in the building formerly occupied by Stacy's Coffee Parlor.

As can clearly be seen on the public notice, only posted this afternoon (Friday, 26 August 2011) on the premises' window, at 709 W. Broad Street ...

... the restaurant will be called spacebar (all lower case). The target opening date is 1 November 2011 the second quarter of 2012.

To set the scene, here's how the orginal Galaxy Hut is described on its Facebook page:

good beer (20 constantly rotating taps of craft and imported beer you mostly don't see anywhere else, and around 30 bottled beers too), vegetarian-centric menu (and dead stuff too), some old video games, awesome staff, cool artwork and background music, and live music most sunday and monday nights

Others, like me, might describe it as funky, inviting, and hip (but not for those who think they're hip). And you gotta love those tater tots!

According to Hoffman, the new SpaceBar will be similar in form and feel: a restaurant/music space, with twenty-four 'craft' beer draught lines. Because the space will be limited and with no basement storage, design will need to be creative. To that end, Hoffman is re-purposing what he calls "megerators": multiple keg coolers built from 3-door beverage coolers. At this point, there are no plans for a dedicated cask line, but Hoffman promises frequent cask tapping events across the bar.

SpaceBar is submitting plans to be a live music venue. Befitting its small footprint, the acts will be small combos, not the full bands that often perform at Galaxy Hut. After the recent demise of blues venue Bangkok Blues, that's a welcome addition to the local music scene.

The pub/restaurant will have a minimum age requirement of 21 in the evenings, but, with a full kitchen, lunch and brunch will be offered to all ages on the weekends.

Finally, here's another really 'cool' possibility. The building was originally designed to have a second story but which was never built. Knowing that, Hoffman intends to open SpaceBar in November, and then submit plans for a 1,200 square foot rooftop patio to be added later. An upper outdoor deck would be a feature no other Falls Church bar or restaurant currently offers.

Add the November landing of SpaceBar on Broad Street to the long established Argia's and Dogwood Tavern, to the recent Dogfish Head Taproom, and to the year-old Public House No. 7 and brewpub Mad Fox Brewing, and Falls Church's 'main street' could indeed become a Craft Beer Street.

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Here is the official press release, from Facebook, on Saturday, 27 August 2011.

Galaxy Hut, which originated in Clarendon in 1990 as Arlington’s original craft beer spot, is opening a second location called “spacebar” in Falls Church City, this fall. Owned and operated by Galaxy Hut owner Lary Hoffman and his wife Erica Hoffman, the restaurant and beer hall will be located at 709 West Broad Street, above the CD Cellar, and a couple of blocks from the Mad Fox Brewery in the spot formerly occupied by Stacy’s Coffee Parlor.

Spacebar is a bit bigger inside than Galaxy Hut, with seating for around 50 people, and some standing area around the 28 foot bar. Plans for a 1,200 square foot rooftop patio and greenhouse vegetable garden are in the works for 2012.

Spacebar will have some tabletop video games, quirky, hand crafted decor, and local art. The background music will consist mostly of current and classic indie rock and post-punk. It’ll have a decent TV (which will hardly ever show sports).

There will be 24 taps of constantly rotating 'craft' beer, and bottles and growlers will be available to-go as well. Spacebar will also be serving cask beer, but, due to space constraints, it is yet to be determined whether there will be a dedicated cask line or just weekly firkin nights. Hard liquor will not be served, but there will be a more substantial wine selection than Galaxy Hut’s.

The food menu will consist of tweaked, more 'gourmet' versions of Galaxy Hut favorites, and will be extremely vegetarian friendly. Yes, there will be tots.

Plans for live music include small combos with a focus on experimental music, frequent (perhaps weekly) karaoke, and low-key dj nights as well.

As spacebar will be a beer-focused night spot, the age policy will be 21 and over in the evening, but the restaurant will be open for lunch on Saturday and Sunday to all ages, beginning in early 2012. Like Galaxy Hut, spacebar will recycle about 80% of its waste.

There is parking for 18 cars on site, and there are numerous parking areas available within walking distance during spacebar’s business hours.

In the shop, one wine bottle fell off a shelf, and shattered, the extent of the damage there. The majestic National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., was not so fortunate, suffering significant damage.

Another aspect of real concern was the failure of the cell phone system (and some land-line phones as well) in the Washington, D.C. area. Reaching anyone by cell phone was a nearly impossible task for for a good hour after the quake. Verizon, et al., predictably denied any problems other than high volume, but there's enough anecdotal evidence (including my fruitless attempts for an hour to contact loved ones by cell phone) to state otherwise. Social media over data lines, such as Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging, fared better.

According to Facebook, four minutes after the earthquake, the word "earthquake" appeared in the status updates of 3 million users. Twitter said that it reached a peak rate of 5500 "tweets" per second on the event, which outranks the rate of tweets on the death of Osama bin Laden and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

A seismologist with the United States Geological Survey — the government agency that knows about such things— was interviewed by CBS Radio. This quake might be a harbinger of another to come, she said.

Some one-hundred and fifty events are scheduled during the week, until its conclusion on Saturday Sunday, 21 August. To help narrow down the abundance, Fritz Hahn —columnist for Going Out Gurus at the Washington Post— has published his choices for the 'best' events. At The DCist, John Fleurie is publishing his daily picks, each the day before. [UPDATE: Tammy Tuck —Lagerheads at the on-line Washington City Paper— has posted a Google Calendar listing of events.]

If YFGF were forced to choose only five events, the criteria would be: local beer, the wow-factor, and introducing the casual beer drinker to beer culture.

Mid-Atlantic Brewery Night, at Smith Commons, 5pm-
The finest local beers from D.C., Maryland and Virginia —and Delaware and North Carolina— can all be found under one roof for the night.

And, if forced to select only one event, it would be ... the cask tasting, Thursday, at District Chophouse ... which is, indeed, where YFGF will be. All local cask-conditioned ales!

The full schedule of events for DC Beer Week 2011 can be viewed: here. On Twitter, follow @DCBeerWeek and the hashtag #DCBW11. On Facebook, go: here.

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I've written before of my concern that DC Beer Week misses the potential for greatness by excluding the DC Metro area. Others believe so as well. So, here's what Teddy Folkman —co-founder of DC Beer Week and Executive Chef at Granville Moore's— wrote me in a Tweet, to assuage my concerns for 2012:

The "Dave" is David McGregor, Beer Director for Lyon Hall, a good-beer-friendly brasserie, across the river from D.C., in the 'hot spot' Clarendon district of Arlington, Virginia.

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Hungry?

The summer edition of DC Restaurant Week runs concurrently (one day later), Monday, 15 August through 21 August. Restaurants in Washington, D.C. —and the neighboring suburbs— will be offering special meals, priced at $20.11 for lunch and $35.11 for dinner, throughout the week.

Finally, bonus points should be awarded to DC Beer Week over DC Restaurant Week, at least in this regard: the latter's website at restaurantweekmetrodc.org —hosted by the organizer, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington— is simply dreadful.

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The "DC Craft Beer Week" held earlier in June during the week leading up to the Brewers Association's Savor event is a separate promotion wholly created by Premium Distribution, an affiliate of Reyes Beverage Group, the largest beer wholesaler in the US. By contrast, DC Beer Week, today through 21 August, is a local and independent creation, co-founded by 'Hoppy' Jeff Wells of DOPS Distributing (a locally-owned beer/wine wholesaler operating in DC/Maryland) and Teddy Folkman, executive chef for Granville Moore's (a 'Belgian-esque' bistro in northeast DC). It's a celebration of local beers, local pubs, and local beer culture. No Corona. Go here for how it began, in 2009.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Great Taste of the Midwest is one of the premier beer festivals in the United States. On the second Saturday in August, over one hundred brewpubs and microbreweries from the Midwest come to beautiful Olin-Turville Park overlooking Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, to share beer and good times with six thousand patrons.

It had rained heavily during the days before the August 2009 festival. Early Saturday afternoon, as the festival opened and a line of six-thousand festival-goers snaked around the grounds, the sun broke out. The field remained wet, and all those feet would soon trample the turf into mud. That didn't seem to faze the intrepid young lady pictured above. She, stylishly, attended in pumps.

The Great Taste of the Midwest is one of the better beer festivals in the US —one day only, well designed and staffed— featuring, naturally, only beers from the midwest US. (That's something more US beer festivals around the US should strive to emulate: maybe bring in the distant, but emphasize the local.)

This year's festival begins this afternoon. If you don't have tickets, you won't be getting any. Tickets for the 2011 Great Taste of the Midwest —the 25th annual running of the fest— have been sold out since May.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

The recently concluded Great British Beer Festival, held in London, is a yearly celebration of cask ale in the UK, and a competition for the best 'real ales' in that nation.

The festival runs a side-program called Bières Sans Frontières (literally, beers without borders). One of its presentations is an exposition and competition of cask ales (and lagers) from the US.

With over 100 cask beers from 18 different states, plus one from DC-based Capitol City, the Blackwell/W2 bar at GBBF has one of the largest ions of US real ale [and 'real' lager] in the world.

And it's proving a big draw, according to deputy bar manager Jim Laws. "Some people go for the strength, but a lot are going for the hops," he said, noting that while the US is famed for its big hoppy IPAs - and it is International IPA Day today, after all - there are plenty of porters, stouts and others on tap too.

But in the end, there can be only one, and it appears that British beer judges have caught the American 'craft beer' big hop flu. The 2011 winner of the Michael Jackson American Cask Ale competition at the GABBF 2011 was Palate Wrecker Double IPA from the Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego, California.

Dave Sanders the manager of the [US cask]bar and the head brewer at Kirkstall Brewery in Leeds, UK commented:

'Palate Wrecker can truly be described as an awesome beer. A huge depth of flavour and bursting with fresh hops. The technique used to brew this particular beer appears to be quite revolutionary.'

The Green Flash Brewing Company was formed in 2002 by former pub owners Mike and Lisa Hinkley and in 2003 renowned brewmaster Chuck Silva joined the team. With Chuck on board they started to brew premium style beers with a modern twist on traditional styles. Their cutting edge beers don't fit traditional guidelines and have generated a great interest in the US and beyond.

The judging went on over the week of the festival involving brewers, CAMRA bar managers, bar staff, publicans and beer experts.

Second place was awarded to Sierra Nevada's Torpedo Extra IPA and third place to Brewers Union 180 Wotcha (a la Chinook) Best Bitter.

Here's the list of 18 (!) casks shipped from breweries in the tri-state mid-Atlantic area of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and poured at the US Cask Bar. The breweries provided the descriptions, although spelling indicates some British editing.

Devils Backbone (Roseland, Virginia)
[Jason Oliver, brewer] Barclay's London Dark Lager (5.6% ABV)
Collaborative brew with beer historian Ronald Pattinson re-creating a rare London 1930 Barclay Perkins dark lager using a copy of the original brew log. Deep ruby brown in colour with rich malty notes. A recreation of an early English lager before they became pale and bland.

Big DIPA Double IPA (10% ABV)
Triple hopped during the brewing process with 5 pounds of hops per barrel. Very well balanced with an earthy hop aroma and strong malt backbone. This cask has been dry-hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial and Palisade.

Loose Cannon Hop 3 IPA (7.3% ABV)
Triple-hopped American IPA: hopped in the kettle, in the hopback, dry-hopped in conditioning tank and finally dry-hopped in the cask. Well balanced with a rich hop flavour, citrus aroma and smooth finish. [Loose Cannon was awarded runner-up in the 2010 competition.]

Plank 1 English Style Olde Ale (8% ABV)
This English Style Olde Ale is matured on thermally modified Poplar wood. The cask has been additionally dry hopped with Northern Brewer and Fuggle hops. The base beer used in Plank I is special in and of itself, utilizing 8 types of specialty grains.

White Marsh/Red Brick Station (White Marsh, Maryland)
(Michael McDonald, brewer)Altbier (4.8% ABV)
Modelled after traditional Dusseldorf Alt biers. The beer has a clean malt aroma and flavour with a hint of hops in the finish.

At its core, cask-conditioned ale is beer at its freshest. Beers traveling from the States to the UK would be about a month old: travel to a collection depot, to port, across the Atlantic, through customs, to another depot, and on to the festival. To forestall deleterious effects, many of the the US brewers relied upon stronger beers: higher hopping rates and greater alcohol levels.

Here's what the assistant manager for the American Cask Bar at the festival had to say:

So how have the US cask beers measured up to the exacting standards of CAMRA's volunteer cellar staff? Overall they have done extremely well, it seems. "One or two gave a few problems," Jim said. "But considering they've had a heck of a journey that's only to be expected."

For what its worth, on-line voters (really more an instant indication of preference) gave three stars, out of five possible, to Mad Fox, DuClaw, Devils Backbone, and Heavy Seas, and two stars to Brewer's Alley. The overall winner of the competition, Green Flash, received no stars. Of course, now that I've mentioned this, the results could quickly change.

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The term "real ale" was coined in the 1970s by the Campaign for Real Ale. Known by the acronym, CAMRA, it's the UK consumer beer organization which organizes the Great British Beer Festival: "Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide."

There was a bit of controversy this year over CAMRA's insistence on cask-conditioned beers vs. kegged beers. Read here and the response here.

Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the ales of Oliver Breweries and Heavy Seas.